IITU Experts Told How to Motivate Students
On April 23 and 29, 2022, Elmira Yerkebekova, Associate Professor of the Department of Languages at IITU, and her colleague, Assistant Professor Yevgeny Medvedev, held a methodological consultation on the motivation of students of different ages and levels (ages 5-14 and 15-17). They told how age-related characteristics affect the desire to learn a language.
“There are physiologically determined patterns of human development. At different stages of growing up, different types of memory predominate - in children of primary school age mechanical memory prevails (the teacher gives information, the child simply remembers it), in adolescents logical memory begins to prevail (it is not enough just to remember, you need to build new information into the system of the existing information, find logical connections with what was already familiar),” Yevgeny Yuryevich explained.
In this regard, according to him, when working with children of different ages, different forms of tasks will be productive:
- for younger schoolchildren, the most natural form of work is puppet theater technique and role-play games), during which they memorize the necessary information;
- for adolescents, the tasks that imply an independent search for an answer, such as project work and brainstorming are more productive.
In addition, from a certain point on, the most significant problem for adolescents is the need to take a place among their peers (relations with adults fade into the background). Therefore, when working with this category of children, it is worth paying attention to group work, giving the opportunity to interact with each other, build relationships with peers within the group in the process of solving educational problems.
“We also talked about how important it is to organize the process of communication between migrant children who study Russian and native speakers, for example, within the framework of some seminars or clubs. The opportunity to demonstrate your skills not only in the classroom with a teacher, but also in direct communication with native speakers, is the most important incentive for further language learning,” he added.
We also touched upon the question of whether it is possible to build work in a group, taking into account the leading channel for perceiving information (such as vision, hearing or tactile sensations) and, based on this, differentiate task options.
Recall that the literacy course is designed for children aged 5 to 17 who do not speak Russian. Now on the Akelius platform, levels A0, A1, A1.1, A2 (basic) and B0 (intermediate) are available. In addition to the Akelius Foundation, the project is being implemented by UNICEF and specialists from the Department of Languages of IITU.
Teaching children literacy using the new course in Kazakhstan has been ongoing since September 2021 in nine pilot schools. It is expected that by the end of the project (February 2023), 250 children will have completed this course.